She’s the chair of the Department of Health Policy in the School of Public Health and Health Services at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

We caught up with the professor today to ask her about the case. (For those needing a refresher, San Francisco’s local restaurant association has sued the city over its mandate that employers pay for health care, and after losing at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wants the Supreme Court to settle the matter once and for all.)

Rosenbaum said the case deals with “an enormously important question”: whether a city or state has the authority to impose financial obligations on employers when it comes to health care. She said it wouldn’t be so pressing if a national health care bill emerged with employer mandates, but said the shape and timeline of that bill is still far from determined.

She said the court wants to see where the Obama administration is, given it hasn’t weighed in on the case whereas the Bush administration came out strongly against San Francisco.

“Obviously it’s why the Supreme Court is making inquiries – saying where are you guys now on the subject?” she said. “Probably the court is having a bit of fun trying to figure out exactly where the administration is today.”

If the professor had to place a bet, she’d go with a city of San Francisco win. “I would actually be somewhat surprised if (the Supreme Court) took the case,” she said.